(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to acoustic transmitter devices and in particular to a method for using a deployable, small package acoustic transmitter device, which serves as a standard acoustic source for on-vessel, in-mission field calibration purposes.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
Individual acoustic hydrophone elements for sonar arrays are typically calibrated one by one before being assembled into an array for deployment on a marine vessel. Once such arrays are in service, on-vessel array calibration is a challenging and costly process. Furthermore, after years of service, sonar array performance degrades for many reasons, such as due to environmental effects. To quantify array degradation, an independent standard acoustic source is needed for on-vessel array detection and tracking, which can not only act as a multi-configurable acoustic source, but also, in conjunction with a receiver decoder, can provide the true ray-path range from the independent standard acoustic source to the marine vessel for in-mission sonar passive ranging systems calibration.
For this reason, what is needed is a deployable, small package acoustic transmitter device, which serves as a standard multi-configurable acoustic source for on-vessel, in-mission field array detection, tracking, and calibration.